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May 16, 2005

Supernatural Activities in Poughkeepsie, Part Ib

The assorted Princes of Hell find Poughkeepsie a much more
suitable storage area or dumping ground than as a place to do actual work; they
are, of course, mostly indifferent to the long term effects of the Bubble on
its inhabitants.

AndrealphusThe Prince of Lust has no personal interest in the place,
and to the best of his awareness there isn't anything notably unusual about how
his Word operates there. But it is a useful place to have a deniable
meeting.

AsmodeusPoughkeepsie is
a favorite place for Renegades trying to shake supernatural trackers. Some elude their pursuers, and some are
merely encouraged to think that they have. The Game does try to keep Renegades from
going in, but it tries even harder to keep them from coming out undetected...
or, for the more problematical ones, from coming out at all. After all, give it long enough and Poughkeepsie will solve the problem for you.

BaalIt's a very good place to put the nastier metaphysical
weapons, and Poughkeepsie itself
could be a very potent weapon if Vapula ever works out how to duplicate the
effect and turn it off at will. The weapons dump is good enough for now.

BelethBeleth hates the
idea of Poughkeepsie; the
Nightmares generated there are pallid and useless. Beleth also hates the idea of Blandine succeeding in anything. Whichever hatred is more important at any
given time is for Beleth to know and her Servitors to quake in fear about
getting wrong.

BelialThe Bubble isn't fire-retardant - and that's pretty much it. Still, it’s pretty funny to send in the
occasional idiot cold, as it were. They
either learn better real quick, or they die.

HaagentiFood from Poughkeepsie doesn't taste any different; this actually is of some interest to the Prince of
Gluttony. He's one of the few Princes genuinely
curious about the nature of the place, to the point where he has permanently
assigned a Servitor to do research. She
is currently researching whether this was a plum assignment, or a trap.

KobalA Prank that involves Poughkeepsie 's
unique nature is almost guaranteed to bring a smirk to Kobal's face -
particularly if the demon made it all happen naturally. Plus, it's a good place to leave stuff and
'forget' about it.

KronosOnce it was determined that the Bubble did not interfere
with Destiny and Fate, Poughkeepsie became no more and no less an irritant to Kronos than any other place on the
map.

LilithThe Princess of Freedom does not like places where Geases do
not bite - and Asmodeus is already giving her grief for the way that Lilim seem
immune to the place. She's a willing
contributor of resources to Hell's few research programs; indeed, she'd be
happy to underwrite the ones done by the Other Side...

MalphasThe Prince of Factions is of the opinion that any competent
Servitor of his Word can promote that Word without supernatural
assistance. The fact that doing so in Poughkeepsie does not generate Essence is irrelevant; it's the principle of the thing. Obviously, there are certain safety concerns, but that's a mere
hostile-environment issue.

NybbasServitors of the Media are of two minds on Poughkeepsie. One faction points out that the place is an
ideal area for determining what humans actually want to watch; the other, much
larger faction couldn't care less. Nybbas permits a very little blue-sky research by faction one - hey, you
never know - and otherwise ignores the place. I mean. Poughkeepsie.

SamingaPeople still die in Poughkeepsie,
so obviously Saminga is still its king. The
Prince of Death would like to figure out a way for Undead to survive the place
for more than a nanosecond, but that's a side issue.

ValeforThe Prince of Theft considers stealing something from Poughkeepsie to be good practice for his Servitors. And, given what some of his colleagues use the place for, there's always
something there worth stealing.

VapulaIt's a fascinating place, well worth examining. The trick is surviving long enough to get any
worthwhile data; for some reason, virtually every other organization in the War
makes it a point to shoot Technology's onsite researchers on, well, sight. This notoriously does not exclude some groups
that are theoretically on Vapula's own side.

HellswornHell doesn't much like the idea of letting its human
servants go off by themselves without supervision, but it's generally deemed
safe enough to have Hellsworn move the heavy stuff in and out. It's rumored that particularly good service
done on behalf of exceptionally kind-hearted demons can result in a Soldier of
Hell being allowed to die inside the Bubble.